WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military is moving forward with plans to build a dedicated facility in Idaho to train pilots from Qatar, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday.
Hegseth, who made the announcement during a visit by Qatar’s defense minister, said the facility being built at Mountain Home Air Force Base “will host Qatari F-15 forces and pilots, enhance joint training, and increase lethality and interoperability.”
This arrangement is not unusual. Pentagon officials noted that similar facilities have been in place for other allied nations for decades, and the Idaho base already hosts a squadron of Singaporean fighter jets.
But the news drew fierce criticism from Trump’s closest allies. Right-wing influencer Laura Loomercalled the plan “abhorrent” and accused the Qataris of having ties to Islamic terrorist organizations.
“No foreign country should have military bases on U.S. soil, especially Islamic countries,” Loomer wrote in one of several social media posts just hours after Hegseth’s announcement.
Although Loomer holds no official position in the Trump administration, her online advocacy has a history of success. Her criticism led to her dismissal National Security Council officialsDr. Vinay Prasad; Director of Vaccines at the Food and Drug Administration; and General Tim Ho, Director of National Security Agency.
Host country Qatar largest US military base In the Middle East, it has been revealed that it does not have a base on the U.S. mainland and that the cost of building a training facility will be borne by the United States.
“This is not a Qatari air base,” a spokesperson for the embassy in Washington said in a statement published in X. “Rather, Qatar has committed for the first 10 years to build and maintain a dedicated facility for advanced training purposes within existing U.S. air bases, enhancing interoperability to protect and advance our common interests around the world.”
The statement said the project would create hundreds of jobs for Americans, noting that planning began several years ago and received local approval.
Asked for details about the future facility, Hegseth’s office said it had nothing to offer other than what the chief said.
The announcement came days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order He vowed to use all means possible to protect Qatar, including U.S. military action.
Loomer also criticized the decision, writing: “I don’t want to die for Qatar. Do you think so?” on social media. But she wasn’t alone.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board also questioned the pledge, writing, “This is a decision that should and should be debated.”
“Rather, it comes out of the blue: an executive order without public debate,” the board wrote.
small country rich in gas played an important role as well as in the recent ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza, as well as in several other important negotiations. Doha, the capital of Qatar, was attacked last month by Israel when Hamas members were in the city to discuss a ceasefire.
Qatar was also luxurious $400 million jumbo jet on Trump for use as Air Force One.
However, Qatar’s relationship with US military aviation predates these recent developments.
In 2020, announced by the US Air Force The company has signed a contract with Qatar to sell more than 35 F-15 fighter jets.
An Air Force environmental study completed two years later revealed that Mountain Home Air Force Base proposed building a facility that would house 12 Qatari F-15 fighter jets and about 300 additional Qatari and American Air Force personnel.
The U.S. military has a long history of training pilots from allied nations, but the practice came under scrutiny after the 2019 mass shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola that killed three U.S. service members and injured several others.
The gunman, Mohammad Saeed Al Shamrani, was a Saudi air force officer who was training at the Pensacola base. The FBI said the suspect had ties to al-Qaeda extremists and had been in contact with them before the shooting.
In the wake of the shooting incident, The US sent them back to their home country. Officials said at the time that investigations revealed that 21 other Saudi military students had expressed jihadist and anti-American sentiments on their social media pages and had “contacted child pornography” in Internet chat rooms and elsewhere. However, the United States continued to train Saudi pilots.
Loomer addressed the incident in a social media post Friday. “Why are we trying to train more Muslims how to fly airplanes in the continental United States? Haven’t we already learned the lesson?” she wrote on social media.
